Harlan's Poems

On Sunday, The Bakery is Closed
    You wake up and squeeze
the rain water from your hair,
Your neck is sore like you were stretching
    To see something

A man and his son walk past

    Your voice is hoarse
    From a place you were calling to.

      --- Harlan, age 16, Vancouver, BC. Canada.

A Sunflower in 2007
A native man
Who came to the city
To study law
Now walks with a two toothed smile
And a red cheek safety pinned on,
   A sunflower hanging
   Its neck
   Out the front of his shopping cart
as he wheels it over the sidewalk
tic tac tic tac
a metronome for a drunken heart
practicing piano on his back
   as the sun sets its firemen
behind the shadowy skyline
   all looking down
with solemn half moon eyes
at their black boots
except for one young faced fireman
   who is wearing tap shoes.

      --- Harlan, age 16, Vancouver, BC. Canada.